Time to Set the Record Straight!

I heard from a lot of you this past week and after seeing this week's episode, the truth is still not told. During the filming of that scene, I simply got tired of Jeff shouting over me as I tried to make my point clear. Since the accusations are ludicrous, I’ve been trying to take the high road on all of this by not giving it any energy. Unfortunately, that’s not really getting the truth out, so to address Jeff’s half-truths head on I’ve complied a list of his statements followed by the truth of what really happened.

Jeff: “Ryan is stealing business from me."

Truth: I have never misled anyone into thinking they were contacting Jeff. In my line of work, people do not steal jobs from other designers. If you were trying to call the Honda dealership to buy a Honda and reached someone at Mercedes, wouldn’t you notice? The people that are attracted to Jeff and his work are different from those that want to work with me.

Jeff: “I have shared everything with you”

Truth: Jeff has done far more projects without me over the years than we have done together. He has found and partnered with other investors on many more projects that I could list. He simply has not shared everything with me.

Jeff: “I made you."

Truth: My work speaks for itself. I have been in the design field and had my business longer than Jeff and I have worked together. I have a body of work well above the projects that Jeff and I have done together. I’ve been in the business for over 10 years, Jeff’s design business is about 8 months old.

Jeff: “Ryan was using my name to advertise and get people to his website."

Truth: Per Jeff’s request, and in an attempt to help him out, I purchased a website for him. My office and I spent weeks putting together everything for him. Since I already had an established site with many visitors each day, I added very clear and prominent links from my websites to Jeff’s – and he knew about these. My website sent tens of thousands of people to Jeff’s site over the months that I had links up for him. About 6 months ago, he changed his mind, and asked me to remove all links from my site to his – which I did. I took them down and removed his name from my sites & advertising the very day he asked me to.

Jeff: “Ryan was taking business calls on behalf of me.”

Truth: After I set up Jeff’s website for him he did not want to put a phone number on it because he didn’t want to “deal with all the calls from crazy people.” He asked that my office take calls and field the business inquiries. All messages and inquiries that came in for Jeff were immediately forwarded to him. No deception whatsoever.

Jeff: “Ryan is moving to Santa Barbara because he has acquired business that was meant for me.”

Truth: I don’t have any work in Santa Barbara. I just want to move closer to my parents and the beach so my family and I can live in peace.